Russian jeweller Sokolov has opened its first store in China, pivoting to Asia as access to Western markets dwindles.

Sokolov had been planning to launch a retail network in Germany last year but changed plans after Western markets shunned Russian businesses following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Sokolov said in a statement that the shop in a Shanghai mall is the first part of a three-store pilot project in China, making Sokolov the first Russian jeweller to enter China’s offline retail market.

Should the pilot be successful, the company plans to open another 30-50 stores in China within the next two to three years, Sokolov said.

Sokolov also plans to list its shares on the Moscow Exchange in the second half of 2023.

Dozens of Ukrainians filled Kyiv’s Saint Michael’s Cathedral to bid farewell to a prominent writer and war crimes researcher killed in a Russian missile attack on a café in eastern Ukraine.

Victoria Amelina died on July 1 from injuries she sustained during the June 27 attack, which killed 12 others after Russian forces hit a restaurant in the front-line city of Kramatorsk.

“Usually, we gather here to say goodbye to the most deserving,” said Archimandrite Lavrentii, the Orthodox priest leading the service.

“Considering the times we live in, leading a worthy and dignified life for each of us is the best tribute we can offer in memory of those who have passed away into eternity.”

Amelina was an award-winning writer and novelist who also began researching Russian atrocities after Russia invaded Ukraine.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development says it is lending 25 million euros ($27.24m) to the city of Dnipro to help it cope with an influx of people fleeing the front line.

“Dnipro and its key municipal utilities have been seriously affected by the war and are struggling to keep day-to-day operations functioning,” the EBRD said in a statement.

Dnipro’s pre-war population of about one million people has increased due to constant inflows of internally displaced people, despite the city also coming under Russian fire.

In December, the EBRD also provided Lviv a 25-million-euro ($27.25m) loan.

Ukrainian government officials have said there are about 4.8 million registered internally displaced people in the country.

A spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry says proposals to set up a subsidiary of the Russian state agricultural bank for the purpose of the Black Sea grain export deal are “unworkable”.

Maria Zakharova was commenting on a Financial Times report that the EU had proposed a special subsidiary that could be connected to the SWIFT international payment system, which the bank has been cut off from.

Russia has long threatened to pull out of the Black Sea grain agreement, complaining that promises to remove barriers to its exports of grain and fertiliser have not been fulfilled.

In mid-May, it agreed to renew the deal for two months but has repeatedly said it sees no basis to extend it again this month when it expires.

The Russian foreign ministry says, less than two weeks before the expiry date, that Moscow sees no basis for renewing the Black Sea grain deal.

In a statement, the ministry said Russia was doing everything so that all ships covered by the deal could leave the Black Sea before it expires on July 17.

Kharkiv’s governor, Oleh Synehubov, has raised the number of people wounded in an attack in Pervomaiskyi to 31, including nine children.

Synehubov said on Telegram that the windows of eight multi-storey buildings were smashed and posted several pictures of the building with smashed windows.

Andriy Yermak, head of Zelenskyy’s office, said on Telegram, “As of 3:00 pm [12:00 GMT], we know of a significant number of wounded: 31 people were taken to a hospital (nine of them are children, 2 infants – 1 year, and 10 months)”.

Click here for a roundup of the key events from day 496 of the war.

Italy’s central bank has frozen assets belonging to Russian oligarchs valued at about 2 billion euros ($2.2bn) since last year’s invasion of Ukraine.

As part of EU sanctions against the Kremlin and its backers, Italy seized assets that included bank accounts, luxury villas, yachts and cars.

The director of Italy’s anti-money laundering unit, Enzo Serata, said financial holdings worth about 330 million euros ($360m) linked to 80 individuals had been frozen.

Before the war, Italy’s beaches and ports were popular with wealthy Russians who bought properties in prime locations, such as Lake Como, Sardinia, Tuscany and the Ligurian coast.

Ukraine’s governor of the Kharkiv region says Russian shelling wounded 12 people, including five children, in Pervomaisk.

On Telegram, Oleh Synehubov said, “According to preliminary information, the shelling was carried out with a high-explosive projectile. As a result, several cars caught fire in the parking lot.

“Currently, 12 injured people are known, including five children.”

He added that doctors and specialists are providing assistance.

Russia’s defence ministry says troops repelled 10 attacks in the Donetsk direction over the past 24 hours, Russian state news agency TASS reported.

“In the Donetsk direction, 10 enemy attacks were successfully repelled by competent and courageous actions of the defending units of the Southern Group of Forces,” ministry spokesperson Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov said.

According to Konashenkov, Ukraine’s losses amounted to “up to 290 servicemen killed and wounded, two infantry fighting vehicles, nine vehicles, two pick-up trucks, an Akatsiya self-propelled artillery mount, Msta-B and D-30 howitzers”.

He added that air defence systems shot down two Ukrainian Su-25 aircraft and intercepted two HIMARS MLRS shells and 14 drones.

The Kremlin says there were “certain contacts” with the United States over the case of jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich but that it did not want to make them public.

On Monday, the US ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy, was granted access to visit Gershkovich, in the second such visit since his pre-trial detention in March on espionage charges he denies.

“Ambassador Tracy reports that Mr Gershkovich is in good health and remains strong, despite his circumstances,” a US State Department spokesperson said.

“We expect Russian authorities to provide continued consular access.”

Unidentified men have beaten up a journalist for Russia’s Novaya Gazeta newspaper and her lawyer in the Russian region of Chechnya, the news outlet says in a statement.

The attackers destroyed equipment and documents belonging to reporter Yelena Milashina and lawyer Alexander Nemov after intercepting them on their way from the airport to the Chechen capital, Grozny, to attend the trial of Zarema Musayeva, the mother of two local activists who have challenged Chechen authorities.

Novaya Gazeta said Milashina sustained a brain injury and had several fingers broken, and Nemov had a deep cut on his leg.

The Kremlin has relied on Chechnya’s leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, to stabilise the North Caucasus region after two separatist wars.

Kadyrov’s security forces have also fought in Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

Zelenskyy spoke to Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and thanked him for two sanctions packages against Russia during its six-month presidency of the Council of the European Union.

On Twitter, Zelenskyy wrote, “We discussed the situation on the battlefield and the latest developments in Russia. This is evidence of a split in Russian society and the weakness of the power vertical.

“In such circumstances, further political pressure on Russia and military support for Ukraine will be most effective. We agreed to coordinate efforts to bring NATO membership closer for Ukraine and Sweden.

“We also discussed the pace of implementation of previous agreements on defence support from Sweden. I conveyed to Kristersson the further needs of Ukraine, in particular, on strengthening air defence.”

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s contract will be extended by a year as the military alliance grapples with helping Ukraine without triggering a larger war with Russia.

Stoltenberg, a former prime minister of Norway, has been the alliance’s leader since 2014 and has had his tenure extended two previous times, including last year after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Stoltenberg said on Twitter that he was honoured by the decision to extend his term to October 1, 2024.

“The transatlantic bond between Europe & North America has ensured our freedom & security for nearly 75 years, and in a more dangerous world, our Alliance is more important than ever,” he said.

Putin has told Asian leaders at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) that Russians were more united than ever in his first appearance at an international forum since the Wagner Group mutiny two weeks ago.

“The Russian people are consolidated as never before,” Putin told a virtual meeting.

“Russian political circles and the whole of society clearly demonstrated their unity and elevated sense of responsibility for the fate of the Fatherland when they responded as a united front against an attempted armed mutiny.”

Putin emphasised Russia’s unity at a meeting with key allies to show how dedicated he is to removing doubts about his authority following claims that the Wagner mutiny had shown his weakness.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told a virtual meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation that Moscow would stand up against Western sanctions and “provocations”.

Putin said Moscow planned to boost ties with the group, which includes China and India, and supported the transition to settlements in local currencies in foreign trade.

He warned that the potential for conflicts and the risk of a global economic crisis were rising.

The president of Lithuania has urged NATO leaders to address Ukraine’s push to join the NATO military alliance at a summit in the capital next week.

“We should not hesitate to take bolder decisions because otherwise, the Putin regime will decide that the Western allies are too weak (that they should be) pushed to the corner and they will surrender”, President Gitanas Nauseda said in an interview with Reuters news agency on Monday.

“Our stronger wording on Ukraine’s (membership) perspective would for sure increase the fighting spirit of Ukrainian soldiers on the battlefield. And this is very important”, he added.

Ukraine has been pressing NATO to declare at the July 11-12 summit that Kyiv will join the bloc soon after the war ends and to set out a roadmap to membership.

In Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s nightly Telegram address, he praised anti-aircraft troops and said there would only be peace in Europe once it had guaranteed its security.

On Twitter, Zelenksyy posted his video address and wrote, “It is obvious that Europe can be protected from any aggression only together with Ukraine and only together with Ukraine in NATO.

“That is why we must achieve security certainty about our future in the Alliance. Then Russia will have to refocus on its own statehood – to finally take care of itself, not some expansions.”

Ukraine’s security service (SBU) wrote in a Tweet that a “traitor” allegedly preparing a missile attack on buildings belonging to the SBU and Ukrainian defence forces in Mykolaiv – a city near the Black Sea in southern Ukraine – had been detained.

Last week Ukraine arrested a man accused of directing the Russian missiles that hit a restaurant in the city of Kramatorsk, killing at least 13 people and wounding more than 60.

A man and a woman died in Kherson after the city – located in southern Ukraine – was shelled by Russia on Tuesday morning, the local prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

The number of wounded is being ascertained. Damage to property has also been reported, it said.

Russian forces occupied Kherson in early March 2022. On November 11, 2022, Ukrainian forces recaptured the city.